Item No. 9180529

A CDV view of Henry A. Wise. On the reverse is the imprint of E. & H. T. Anthony of New York. The top corners of the mount are trimmed and the carte measures about 2 1/2” x 4”.

Wise was a Virginia politician, diplomat, and Confederate brigadier general whose long public career made him one of the most prominent Southern leaders of the era. A former U.S. congressman and governor of Virginia, Wise gained national attention for his forceful role in the trial and execution of John Brown after the 1859 Harpers Ferry raid. When the Civil War began, he accepted a Confederate commission and commanded troops in western Virginia and later around Richmond and Petersburg, where his brigade fought in the 1864–65 campaigns defending the Confederate capital. Though often outspoken and politically contentious, Wise remained a committed supporter of the Southern cause until its collapse, after which he resumed legal work and wrote memoirs reflecting on his political and military life.